Google App Engine Java SDK advices

It would have been nice if I knew this beforehand about Google App Engine Java SDK

This article originally appeared on https://techtavern.wordpress.com

GAE infrastructure is a kind of Java 7 platform. You may compile your code using the current Java 8 SDK, as long as source code version is set to Java 7. You may deploy and run your application locally with Java 8, too.

However, when deploying to Google infrastructure, there are some pitfalls.

The appcfg script pre-compiles your JSP files using the Java SDK on the PATH or set by JAVA_HOME system property. If this SDK is not Java 7, appcfg will create and upload incompatible class files.